Movable barriers, including garage doors, raise entrapment and entanglement concerns. In particular, open spaces in and around the door and close to the moving parts of the door may allow an object to enter this open space and be pinched or crushed by the moving parts of the door. In the past, objects within the garage including tool handles, clothing, and body parts, such as hands or fingers have been pinched or crushed by the door. Such dangers are a safety concern to users and may interfere with operation of the door. To provide safer door systems, attempts have been made to prevent such entrapment Of particular concern is the possibility of a finger or hand being placed within a track section where it might be crushed or pinched by a roller traversing the track. One existing roller shield design is used in connection with a sectional door in an attempt to alleviate the aforementioned danger. The sectional door includes a plurality of door sections hinged together in edge-to-edge relationship. Support rollers are attached to each door section and confined within a pair of support tracks located on either lateral side of the door. To prevent entrapment between the roller and the track, a circular or rectangular roller shield is mounted on the axle of each support roller outside the track. The shield is placed proximate to the track to prevent fingers from entering the track near the support rollers. In addition to the roller shields, protective shield wings are provided to enclose the support track and prevent objects from interfering with the roller as well as to provide transport guidance where the sections meet. The outer edge of the shield is blunted or protected to prevent harm during operation. Similarly, the edge of the support track includes a folded single hem used to prevent fingers from being cut as they are brushed aside by the roller shield.
Designs with these features have certain disadvantages. For example, because the shields are positioned outside the track they may interfere with other track components. Further, the external shields typically must physically contact the track or be in such close proximity as to intermittently contact the track in order to adequately protect a user from the rollers. When contacting, unwanted friction is created, making it continuously or intermittently more difficult to open and close the sectional door and creating substantial noise.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art to provide a roller guard which provides pinching and crushing protection but does not suffer the normal disadvantages.